HUNDREDS of demonstrators shouting “freedom” and “democracy” rallied briefly near a shopping mall in the heart of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, yesterday to denounce the country’s May 22 coup: here.

The Thai military, which seized power in a coup on May 22, is consolidating its rule, clamping down on sporadic protests, arresting opponents and critics and ruling out any elections for at least 15 months: here.

An international workers’ union has declared the Thai government to be “on trial” in an impending defamation case against a British human rights defender who exposed alleged modern-day slavery in its canned fruit and fishing industry: here.

Thailand‘s military rulers say they are monitoring a new form of silent resistance to the coup – a three-fingered salute borrowed from science fiction blockbuster The Hunger Games – and will arrest those in large groups who ignore warnings to lower their arms: here.

Critics charged yesterday that Thailand’s military junta plans to make the country’s constitution less democratic: here.

Thailand’s military is promoting itself as a US ally amid escalating tensions produced by Washington’s military build-up against China: here.

Here are five ways extreme copyright rules can be used to censor the Internet (Thank goodness for @openmedia_ca!): here.

14 thoughts on “Thailand military dictatorship Internet censorship”

Understanding Thailand’s Political Crisis: back to the future?
Date & time
17 June 2014, 15.00 – 17.30 hrs

Venue
Snouck Hurgronjehuis, Rapenburg 61, Leiden

The lecture
In light of Thailand’s latest coup on 22 May 2014, Duncan McCargo will discuss how a country that was once considered a beacon of democracy in the region has experienced two military power seizures in the past eight years, and seems on course to reverse a hard-won political transition to more open politics. What are the key forces that have reshaped Thailand’s political landscape in recent years? And what are the possible scenarios for the country’s future?

The speaker
Duncan McCargo is Professor of Political Science at the University of Leeds, a senior research affiliate at Columbia University, and an associate fellow at Chatham House. His ten books include Politics and the Press in Thailand (Routledge 2000), Media and Politics in Pacific Asia (Routledge 2003), The Thaksinization of Thailand (co-authored NIAS 2005), Tearing Apart the Land: Islam and Legitimacy in Southern Thailand (Cornell 2008) (which won the inaugural 2009 Bernard Schwartz Book Prize from the Asia Society), and most recently Mapping National Anxieties: Thailand’s Southern Conflict (NIAS 2012).

THAILAND: A Criminal Court judge sentenced university student Akkaradet Eiamsuwan to two-and-a-half years in prison today for posting a Facebook message judged insulting to the king.
Mr Akkaradet was convicted of violating the lese majeste law, which punishes anyone who defames, insults or threatens the monarchy.
The court said that it had reduced its original five-year sentence because the defendant, who posted under an alias, had confessed to the offence.